Seattle Times: Illness taking grim toll at nation's boot camps

[Newsjock]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002136521_bootcamp31m.html

Copyright 2004 and Seattle Times Co
By Michael J. Berens
Seattle Times staff reporter

... Patterson's death and its swift closure is an example of broad, deep-rooted health-care problems inside the nation's boot camps, a Seattle Times investigation found.

At a time when the Iraq war puts each recruit in high demand, at least 1 in 9 are treated for acute pneumonia, adenovirus or other respiratory diseases during their short but intense training stints, according to a Times analysis of military records.

Infection rates at boot camps have risen each of the past five years — often to epidemic levels, military medical-surveillance records show. Today, military boot-camp barracks dwarf nursing homes, dormitories and all other close-quarter institutional settings for the number and ferocity of such outbreaks.

Up to 3,000 recruits each month are treated for acute respiratory illnesses, which flourish in overcrowded barracks where beds are stacked head-to-toe with stressed and fatigued troops.

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[NEOBuckeye]

1. Men aren't invincible. Even those in the military can be pushed too hard.

[Bridget Burke]

2. Not a new story....

Early in the morning of March 11, 1918, a young private reported to the Army hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of fever, sore throat, and headache. Then, another sick soldier appeared, then another and another. By noon, the hospital had more than one hundred cases; in a week, there were five hundred. Forty-eight soldiers died at Fort Riley that spring. No one knew why.

www.dde.liverpool.k12.ny.us/Whacked/WebWhacker%201.0/Influenza/about.html

That was the beginning of the great Influenza Pandemic that killed from 20 to 40 million people around the world. Crowded army camps are great incubators for disease & a virus can mutate any time.

[depakid]

24. Interesting connection

and sort of disturbing.

I think the original patient zero has actually been traced back to the trenches in 1916, but the point about army barracks as breeding grounds for disease (that could break out among the general population) is very well taken.

It would work like this:

[flordehinojos]

3. i wonder if anyone has done any research between those who are being

treated for acute respiratory illnesses and their true feelings about being in Bush's army to support the Iraq war. I am just wondering if their respiratory illnesses is a physical manifestation of (their only way of speaking out about) their underlying emotional aversion to bush and their opposition to his iraq war.

[vs the introvore]

28. yes the research shows that they are pussies

that is to say... they are weak-assed.
not to be rude, but those are some darned tore-up soldiers.
the hi-speed soldier, however, also has respiratory sicknesses AND continues to soldier on. the squared-away soldier channels or funnels or focuses all the bullshit and/or 'pain' of Basic Combat Training into an immersive, real-time (let someone else)CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE book or a smoothly-humming, internal gyro-pulse mechanism or just guts or whatever they have to do, and they fucking soldier on!
these pansies, i swear! they're frikkin flowers, man- i mean, person. frikking Viola tricolor hortensis, i assure you. recruits, today who knew 'exactly' what they were getting into. they want to play the video game, man! they love that. but they don't wanna be troops because BCT is really not an action game and it bothers the kids and they get bored and sick and weak and somehow even when you get their sorry, sick-calling asses to the hospital, they still manage to whinge about only getting some ibuprofen and halls.
these scurvy shites are fucking volunteering to most-likely go to iraq and they get "sick" from quitting smoking,exercising, studying and eating healthy. fuck 'em! regardless what i feel about the iraq war i shore don't want those CANDY-ASSES under the real, actual pressure of war.

[flordehinojos]

29. are you an enlisted person. why don't you enlist to make up for the

pansies?

[vs the introvore]

30. was, was was, man. and i respect every soldier (even the fools)

but i don't want anybody enlisting to make up for the few who cannot pass basic. i am certainly not. sick-callers are for life and i guarantee that they disrupt the troop camraderie just like draftees would/will eventually. i am so sorry they got infections or whatever, really. but i am just saying that these cats who cannot endure basic training- well, they won't fare any better in iraq. and you'd better seriously hope that troops that are on the ground are squared-away.

[flordehinojos]

31. it is interesting how i admire the respiratory illnesses of these soldiers

as perhaps their only instrument of voicing what they otherwise are forced to swallow: opposition to bush and his iraq war... our human systems can sometimes speak up for us much better than we can... respiratory ilnesses seem to be doing so!

[vs the introvore]

33. they are not even subconsciously voicing opposition to bush and war

they are in basic combat training NOW. they most likely signed up FOR this war. they hopefully knew it was going on when their 'human system' helped them swear (or affirm) to god (or other) an oath of allegiance in a room with a picture of the CIC smirking right at them!

[flordehinojos]

34. you know, i remember seeing a documentary years ago, 1981 to be exact,

of those Marielito Cubans who were arriving in Key West by the boatloads. I will never forget the words of an old man who, on stepping on to a Key West pier and looking towards the city turned around, looked back at the sea and the 90 miles of water separating him from Cuba and started crying while saying, "what am I doing here? I just came along because I was swept up with the emotional wave of those who were coming. I don't want to be here. I want to go home and now I can't". It was powerfully heartbreaking.

In my mind I wonder how many of those recruits who signed up for the Iraq war did so because they were pumped up by some smart ass recruit or pumped up militaristic bush speech--only to have a moment of truth much too late and find out that they really don't want to be there.

[vs the introvore]

38. well i read a training manual a while back, under extreme duress, mind you

and it reminded me of what it takes to get booted from the service- or, as they say, "characterized de-volunteerization." yes, i am joking. nobody says that. but they do actually kick out the bad seeds. and lemme say dis, "being a bad seed in the military is being seriously farked-up." but you can do it. you can make it but you can't fake it. if you can bullshatner you can soldier up through the ranks. you still gotta be good- i mean you have to comprehend and you have to deliver. but you cannot have a conscience. you have a higher moral authority- army values, the soldier's creed, LDRSHP. but to object, to conscientiously object, at any later date, you have to be morally DISABLED by your conscience for them to see it- to believe you and grant you a humiliating free pass home. so becoming sick- physically ill and psychologically unable to exist under the military conditions, is essential to the ploy of the 'honorable deserter' who is voided from the service. the requirement thus for a validated DD 214 is pretty much to victimize yourself to the point of incapacitation. these kids who were swept up with the glory soon will be swept out with the medical waste.

as somebody wise once casually paraphrased, " you cannot simultaneously use your VA benefits and be dead."

[w4rma]

39. True. If they are in basic training, now. They just now signed up for this

BS in Iraq. I also doubt they are opposed to it.

[Florida_Geek]

4. When I went thru Army Basic in 68

They were using the WWII barracks for basic training.

While the sleeping arrangements where basic, it was not like that they talk about. There was a lot of room between the bunk beds.

But it sounds like with all the base closures and the modernization of the the military, they did away with the old barracks and did not plan for a need to train a lot of "new" recruits.

Bush fails again.

[Spinzonner]

5. When I was in Air Force basic in 1971 we had the rather small

single platoon, wooden barracks. A little bit drafty but heated well enough so that wasn't a problem.

However, there were also lots of new, concrete, probably fairly well-sealed building replacing them.

I wonder if those aren't 'better' at breeding and communicating respiratory illnesses.

[Mend]

6. Recruits get a lot of inoculations

but now not the one for adenovirus. Those inoculations probably overwhelm their immune system, making them more susceptible to illnesses, at least for a while.

[Rose Siding]

10. That's a reasonable theory

Do we even know if tests on the vaccines included their being given in tandem with so many others?

I've always wondered if the tragic Gulf War Syndrome could be a reaction to a combo of inoculations, or of a reaction of some shots together, to the bite of an otherwise harmless sand flea or something.

[tavalon]

25. Actually, I know too much about vaccine research

and, no, they haven't done much testing around vaccines being given in tandem. You would think they would given their captive audience but the more longterm research that is done around vaccines, the worse they look and vaccines are sacrosanct. Also, until recently, they were a cash cow so pharmaceutical companies didn't want to look too closely. Lastly, there have been, um, a few little problems with vaccines over the last decade and a half so the less we look at them, the less big pharma can be held accountable.

You are way close on your assessment of Gulf War Syndrome. At this point, though, the CDC and the NIH are very careful to select only those groups (read pharmaceutical companies and their beholden) to study such things. People who are looking into what you hint at are given no money from these supposedly impartial research giants.

It's very, very ugly.

[havocmom]

20. Add to that the likelihood of mutated strains of viruses carried by people

from various geographic areas meeting people not used to them, and the illness rate will climb. Seems when just about anyone travels, they have a greater chance of coming down with a bug. Isn't it likely that the high and fast rate of viral mutation for viruses would mean mixing people from different areas would expose some to bugs they are not yet immune to?

I notice a surge in coughing and sneezing here in my tiny town when the kids/parents travel to another town for a basketball game. Surely when you bring recruits from all over the country, some will be exposed to viral strains they have not yet dealt with. Throw in stress and exhaustion and illness seems guaranteed.

[demigoddess]

23. yes, we are retired military and i can tell you that we got sick

usually right after a move. Also these guys are usually young, 18 or so and they have not been exposed as much and then given lots of shots, then worked real hard and exposed to people from all over, it is no surprise, and closed new barracks don't help at all.

[progdonkey]

7. from personal experience...

I went through Basic at Fort Sill, OK, in Summer '01, and ended up getting discharged after ending up in the hospital from pneumonia (immediate cause was hyponatremia--I had been so sick that one spoonful of cereal would make me feel like it was Thanksgiving, so I ate far less than was healthful); I was even in a coma apparently for three hours.

I got discharged from the hospital at the end of the 5th week, but didn't get sent home until the day before graduation. Even though the doctor said I needed to be removed from training, sent home ASAP to rest and that until I was sent home I should stay in bed (he suggested I only leave the bed to go to the bathroom or eat), the DSs seemed to take that to mean "keep him in training."

My platoon's asst. DS was a real ass. Three days after returning from the hospital, he said I had an appointment with the doctor and drove me to Sick Bay. There I waited for the doctor (a major), who upon seeing me asked, "What are you doing here?" Apparently the ADS pulled the "appointment" right out of his ass.

Another time, I had been sleeping in at the barracks (per doctor's orders), which I'd already been doing for about a week. At some point, two other privates came in and said, "DS said you need to come with us." I protested, but they responded that they were just told to come and get me. So I went to morning PT. As I arrived, the Senior DS and other DSs were screaming at me, asking me where I'd been, why I was "late," etc. I proceeded to attempt PT, which was very difficult, as my chronic coughing had resulted in a tearing of one of my rib muscles, resulting in breathing--let alone exercising--being excruciatingly painful.

Considering my personal experience at Fort Sill, I'm not at all surprised at what has occured there. There was/is definitely an idea among the DSs that they don't need to listen to the doctors (who are officers, though restricted line--if that's the right term for the Army). The doctor tells me (at that time with high fever and flu-like symptoms) not to go through the gas chamber and gives me the required exempting note; the DSs still send us through (though admittedly not with a fresh C2 cannister--still stung worse than hell). I'm not to do anymore training, yet am sent to the firing range (where I promptly fainted in the hole under the immense heat). Etc, etc.

I'm extremely glad I didn't end up like the poor guys in the article. Same base, same symptoms, almost same result despite Patterson's being in far better shape than I had been (I ended up in a coma, Patterson ended up dead). I hope this media exposure gets them to finally make some changes to either prevent recruits from getting sick, or actually treat them when they do become sick.

[Bigmack]

11. Sounds like Army to me!

(caution... Marine boot camp story ahead)

Sounds like the Army to me! "Drove me to sick bay.."?????

Shit, in the Corps we had to RUN to sick bay. I had pneumonia in boot camp at MCRD San Diego - wheezing like a bitch - and the Drill Instructor made me run to sick bay. Admitted me to the Naval hospital directly from there.

No problem, tho.... while I was at the hospital, I got my teeth filed to nice sharp points to kill Commies with.

The US military is an anachronism... Feudal bullshit in the 21st century.

[progdonkey]

15. well...

Normally we had to run to Sick Bay, too, but for some reason the DS didn't make me bring my battle buddy, and he just had me climb onto the bed of a pickup and drove me to Sick Bay (to the non-existent appointment).

There were a few cool DSs there (still tough as hell, but competent), but this asst. DS was a complete jackass (emphasis on the "idiot" connotations).

[bemildred]

8. Oh, bullshit, stress is good for you.

You just grit your teeth and power through right?
Like in the movies?

[indepat]

9. Minor illnesses are but small prices to pay, mere piffles, for the honor

and glory of serving in pre-emptive war(s) those controlling all the levers of power say are essential to keep us safe.

[Carl Brennan]

12. I went through Navy basic in '71-72 and got sick

with the flu, sore and strep throat. It was common. When you have kids away from home for the first time at close quarters with hundreds of other recruits its no surprise they'll get sick.

Some of them were set back and a few were cut loose altogether.

[HereSince1628]

14. ARD was epidemic in Army Training Facilities in 71-72 winter

Acute Respiratory Distress. Things change but always seem to remain the same.

But that was nothing compared to the number that got sick later. After we got shipped to Vietnam shortly after our first night downtown everyone got a strange disease that made it hurt when you peed!

[Carl Brennan]

17. That was the salt peter I think.

At least that's what the scuttlebutt was. :evilgrin:

[Ezlivin]

13. Food Poisoning Felled Hundreds in Orlando Naval Recruit Training Center

The summer of 1977 was a memorable one for me and hundreds of other recruits at RTC Orlando.

I recall standing outside my barracks watching recruits literally fall to the ground. We had little carts running around picking up all of them. A mess cook had made chicken salad sandwiches with bad meat. I fortunately chose a different entree and was spared the food poisoning. My wife (who was unknown to me at the time and was also in boot camp) wasn't so lucky; she ended up in the infirmary with the others.

This was in addition to the "recruit crud" that most of us seemed to suffer through. We speculated it was the massive number of innoculations we received coupled with the close living conditions. I only weighed 185 pounds and I am 6'7" tall. When my mother saw my condition at graduation she started to cry. But it was considered "normal" to look like that at the finish.

[Carl Brennan]

19. I was at Orlando too. I got the cruds numerous times while on board

an aircraft carrier. I used to stock up on vitamin supplements and anti-diarrhea medicines before a 6 month bon voyage. One time somebody who saw all the pill bottles in my locker reported me to the MAA and they held me under suspicion of "drug use".

When it was all over and they determined I was clean the MAA looked at me and asked: "Are you a hypochondriac or something"?

[haele]

35. I had borderline pneumonia in Orlando, December, 1977

Luckily, it was the weekend before service week - which was the week before our 2 week Xmas vacation. I got to spend two weeks in the infirmary, make up my "service week" the last week of the vacation in the Admin building (typing up infirmary reports, including three death certificates) and still keep up with my unit. The physical tests afterwards towards the end of bootcamp were hell to get through, but I did. Lucky thing we did the swimming, firefighting, and the gas chamber prior to that. (In fact, I think the gas chamber helped trigger the sickness - which I had already had around 3 years prior.)

Anytime you get a large group of people from all over and put them under great stress and force them to live in close quarters, you're going to get sickness as their systems go through shock.

Haele

[Kimber Scott]

16. I ended up in the hospital my second day at Ft. Dix with a URI.

That was a long time ago - 1981. I didn't realize it was such a common occurence. I remember, they made me clean my own hospital room! That was my induction into the Army. Bastards.

[TahitiNut]

18. Same here -- packed in ice to bring down temperature.

It was in the final days of basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood in 1968. I vaguely remember qualifying on the rifle range, running a temperature of maybe 104. I vaguely remember being taken to the infirmary the next morning, assisting (as was required) in packing up my gear, but not much after that for a day or two - other than waking up momentarily as I was packed in ice.

[steely]

21. Ft. Dix - basic 1974

We were actually told that since we were from all over the states, including HI., some of us would be prone to URI, so they made us wear these colored plastic shoe tags on our fatigue shirts/blouse for some reason. They came off after sometime. We were in relatively new barracks, brick and cinder block, much much larger than WW2 barracks.

Never needed sick call, but when I did 'graduate' in August, I did bring something w/ me and was diagnosed on leave by my own doc as having walking pneumonia - there went my leave.

Later I learned that all they gave those who reported to sick call was a 'cold pack', some losenges, small bott. of cold syrup, and maybe some other over the counter stuff - wam bam.

Quonset huts (redstone) and WW2 barracks (Carson) came later, but I don't remember colds being an issue in them.

[onager]

22. Saw both sides of this...

...as a Marine Corps recruit at Parris Island, and later as a Drill Instructor at San Diego. When I was in Boot Camp, one day the DI's told us to report any change in our urine...like it turning solid black. Almost a whole platoon had been hospitalized with some bizarre kidney problem, and I think one kid died with it.

When I was a DI, outbreaks of crud that swept through whole platoons or series (4 platoons) were pretty common. As much as possible we just kept them on the training schedule. We usually got it too, making us even more irritable than usual.

Then there were the ones with serious problems who somehow managed to sneak thru the physicals. We had one 18-yr-old in our series who collapsed and died during a run. He looked healthy as a horse, but had some unusual heart problem.

I've never forgotten one kid with a huge scar on his head, not noticeable until we cut off his hair. He told us he had fallen off a motorcycle--the same story he had told the recruiter.

A Navy doctor got the truth out of him--he had a STEEL PLATE in his head. His drunken stepfather had been playing with a gun and shot him when he was younger.

If that plate had moved during the strenuous boot camp exercise routines, he would have died immediately.

That kid broke down and cried when we told him we were discharging him. He was from Uptown, the hillbilly ghetto in Chicago, and just wanted to improve his life.

[Massachusetts]

36. Ft. Dix 1970

Remember the "sneeze shields" you had to set up at the head of your bunk? Gee those worked...........

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

26. Boot camps are also in notoriously crappy places to be

Navy... San Diego... cold at night, hot in day, Great Lakes, cold, followed by wet and cold with wet and hot and hot and hot,
Coast Guard... Cape May... nice in the summer... otherwise... bleeech
Marine Corps... San Diego.. same as Navy... Paris Island... hell on earth
Army... Dix? used to be one... I think it still is

all places conducive to respiratory ailments

[Cleopatra2a]

27. Hey, what about the Air Force

or as we call it the Chair Force? San Antonio during the summer can be very hot. Of course, if it gets too hot, we don't go outside, LOL!I was there in 85. I don't remember anyone getting sick, other then the usual sore feet, twisted ankles. We did have one girl who did not have her pregancy detected until maybe the 3rd wk of training, and we only do 6 weeks!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

37. cause I could not remember where it was!

[insane_cratic_gal]

32. What about shots?

If your going off to war in Iraq where most of these guys are going, they give them a cocktail

which in effect lowers your immune systems

Snip from CNN last in 2003.

At Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, Lacy was given on March 2 five vaccinations to protect against anthrax, smallpox, hepatitis B, typhoid, measles, mumps and rubella. She then developed pulmonary, neurological and other symptoms and died on April 4 due to a severe lung inflammation caused by the autoimmune disease lupus, the Pentagon said.